So thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and double thank you for encouraging me to continue writing this story. Anyway, for the time being, I have decided I'll keep going with it. Enjoy!

Chapter 10 –

Running out of the waves with a beaming smile, Romeo had almost completely forgotten about his fight with Indi and had been relieved of his tense mood that he'd felt overwhelmed with prior to his surf.

Sticking his board upwards in the sand and grabbing his towel from where it was sitting on the warm sand, Romeo moved his white thongs and phone that were sitting on top of it. Shaking his hair out and wrapping the blue and black towel around his wet torso, Romeo only noticed that his phone was receiving a call because the illuminated, vibrating object had caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.

Answering the call from Marilyn and not noticing the missed calls from both Roo and Sid also, Romeo held his phone up to his ear, cautious of his wet hair. "Hello?"

"Romeo! Where are you?" Marilyn answered, sounding slightly flustered.

Looking around at his surroundings in case it was a trick question, Romeo replied cynically. "Uh… I'm down at the beach? Why?"

"We've been trying to reach you for ages! Indi collapsed at work and Roo's taken her to the hospital."

Romeo's stomach dropped instantly as he grabbed his thongs and was rushing up to the car park from the beach within seconds. "Are you serious? Is she okay? What happened?"

"I'm not sure. We haven't heard back from Roo, yet" Marilyn sighed.

Opening the car door and throwing his items into the seat alongside him, before pulling the seatbelt over his chest and putting the keys in the ignition, Romeo confirmed the details with Marilyn before he planned to go speeding off. "So she'd be at Yabbie Creek, right?"

"I would guess so."

"Okay thanks Marilyn. Bye" he said before ditching his phone too and pulling out of the car park faster than he could ever recall having done before.

Fortunately for Romeo and all other drivers that were sharing the same road with him and his currently reckless driving, the drive from the Summer Bay beach to the Yabbie Creek hospital wasn't far, with the hospital only being around 10kms inland through the windy hills from the small coastal town.

Romeo jumped out of the car so quickly when he got to the hospital that he'd barely finished parking, hoping that the quicker that he would be able to get inside and the quicker that he knew Indi was okay, the faster that the pit of worry and guilt in his stomach would be gone.

Rushing in through the automatically opening doors, Romeo almost instantly bumped into his father-in-law just seconds after he entered the building.

Sid grasped the top of Romeo's shoulder, worrying the younger man at first before he realized as he spoke that it was just a means of slowing and calming him down on the spot.

"Calm down, Romeo. She's okay" Sid said reassuringly, which turned out to be of upmost assurance to him, knowing that if his wife's exceedingly overprotective, medically-educated father was telling him that she was okay, then he could trust that.

Nodding at him as he panted, catching his breath that he hadn't realized he'd lost. "Oh thank goodness. Where is she?"

Sid pointed to the room diagonal from the nurse's bay, which Romeo automatically connected to his last memory and visit of the room, the last time he'd been there with Indi which was to visit Ruby after she too had collapsed from treating her diabetes negligently after he had told her there was no chance they would ever be together just days after he'd made his mistake of spending the night with her.

Walking in, he didn't even bother knocking on the door, walking straight into the room to see Indi sitting straight up in bed, legs crossed and hands in her lap, looking as though she was daydreaming and looking into the distance.

"Hey" he said sheepishly, walking over to her and kissing her cheek before proceeding to stroke her arm. "Are you okay."

She nodded silently, only looking over to him momentarily before looking into the distance again, leaving Romeo to fear about his next question that he was almost too worried to ask about, knowing the high-likelihood risk of bad news, especially considering her unusual mood currently.

"Indi? What about the baby?" he asked softly, close to a whisper so that he could erase the question from existing at the outcome of a response that he didn't want to hear.

"They just finished running tests to check. The baby's fine, it's still there" she replied, leaning back on the pillows of the bed as her husband let out a sigh of overwhelming relief.

Pulling one of the chairs in the corner of the room over to the bed and sitting in it, he took one of Indi's hands clutching onto with both of his own as he gently kissed the top of it, before stroking it tenderly.

"So what happened? Why did you collapse?" he asked, holding her hand so close that she could feel his warm breath as he spoke.

She shrugged back at him silently again before explaining. "Not sure. They think that my blood pressure was too high but they haven't got all the results back from every test they did yet."

Romeo nodded, continuing to stroke her hand, but noticing that something wasn't quite right with her, and that her attitude toward him was much colder than usual. "Is there something else wrong?"

She shook her head unconvincingly, reclining further back on the bed. "Just tired."

Although he didn't believe her fully, he decided not to pressure her too much, realizing that she'd had a big day already and if her blood pressure was too high, then the last thing she needed was her husband questioning her too and prompting another fight.

"Relax then babe."

Releasing her hand away from his grasp, rolling onto her side and lying with her hands pressed under her head, she replied to him with gritted teeth. "I was trying to, Romeo."

He didn't reply and she didn't say anything else as he continued sitting there in motionless silence for what felt like hours, but in actual fact it was less than 10 minutes later when Sid walked into the room, flipping through a couple of sheets of paper.

"Hi guys" he greeted, walking into the room and standing by the end of the bed Indi was in.

"Hey mate" Romeo replied, looking up at him as Indi mumbled a "Hi" too.

"The tests that Dr. Ryan did came back, Indi."

She turned over to face him in interest. "And?"

"And like we thought, it looks like you just had high blood pressure. It's nothing to worry about if it's a once off occurrence because you're fit and healthy and it was just transiently raised, but if you're exposed to too much stress and pressure, both you and the baby might not be so well off a second time" Sid explained.

Indi nodded at her dad. "So basically the only reason I collapsed was stress? That didn't affect the baby did it?"

"Yeah, nothing else showed up on the test apart from your B.P. You collapsed because of being stressed, but to protect the baby – being pregnant just complicated stress. Collapsing was your body's defense mechanism to look after the baby and shut down temporarily so that the stress stops before it got so bad that your body couldn't handle both at the same time and without stopping, your BP would get too high for the baby and would lead to a miscarriage."

Indi bit her lip in shock and regret, not realizing how much of a risk her usual stressed-to-the-max habits were for the health of her child.

Noticing her regret but feeling just as relieved that her collapse was thankfully only a warning of what would happen is she continued going the way she was, Romeo rubbed her back comfortingly. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you and anything I can do to take pressure off you, okay?"

"Mm-hm" she said, once again barely acknowledging him.

"Now, Indi, you have to take it easy for a week to ensure that your BP goes right down. I would recommend that you take a week off work and your studies. You mentioned that you have an exam or something at Uni in a few days, right? I can get a doctors certificate for you to exempt you or so that your lecturers can schedule you in to take the exam at a later date. You also might want to arrange for Sasha or someone else to take your shifts at least until the end of the week, if not for a full week" Sid advised, not only from a concerned medical perspective, but also as an overprotective father and prospective grandfather.

She let out a sigh. "Okay… I'll see what I can do."

Walking over and wrapping his daughter in a hug, Sid smiled. "I'm glad you're okay sweetheart. Had me worried there for a minute – you and junior both did."

Indi smiled at her Dad, before he walked out of the room again.

"Don't think that this changes the fact that I'm angry with you and Annie" Indi finally said after there was more silence in the room.

He looked over to her with slight shock. "Are you serious? Did you not just hear your dad? You need to relax! How good for you and the baby do you think it is holding some stupid, pointless grudge over a conversation I had? I know things got kind of tense between us in the fight, but it was just heat of the moment sort of thing. We were both trying to outdo each other with the hurtful and winning comments."

Tightening her lips, unimpressed, Indi looked away. "You want me to relax? That's easy. Don't talk to Annie again."

"Why? Do you honestly think that something is going to happen between us? Annie and I are so over that it's not even worth talking about it."

"Well why bother talking to her then?" she sniped back.

Standing up and starting to walk away, Romeo stopped momentarily. "You know what? This is ridiculous Indi! You nearly lost our baby today and it's like you don't even care! You're not even trying to do anything to prevent that from happening! I know I can't control you, but I'm not going to antagonize you anymore cause at least that way I have the clean conscious of knowing that I've done what I can to help you both" he replied, before walking out of the room.

Lying down in the bed and turning her back away from the direction of the door with a sigh, Indi felt his words hit home as the truth that she was trying to push away and forget about wormed its way closer to her. She didn't want to face her actions and feel the guilt of knowing that because of her, their baby almost didn't have the chance of making its way into the world and experiencing the gift of life.

#

Romeo left the hospital and drove back into town. Noting how late that it was getting, he decided to drive to Angelo's and pick up some take away dinner for himself and for Indi that he could take back to the hospital for them with the plan of attempting to make amends again.

Walking through the Surf Club to go upstairs to Angelo's, Sasha was sitting at a table with Xavier, sitting close and sipping juices as they conversed.

"Hey" he said, walking over to his friend and sister-in-law.

"How's Indi?" Sasha asked genuinely.

"Physically, she's fine. Emotionally, I don't have a clue. She's barely talking to me" he admitted.

Sasha nodded, smiling over at Xavier distractedly before replying. "Alright. I've got the dinner shift at the diner soon, but I might pop in after that, depends if someone can drive me. Dex said earlier that her was going to see her too."

"Okay. Anyway, I'm just going to grab some decent food to take back for us" he replied, gesturing to the stairs that lead to Angelo's.

"Bye Romeo" she giggled as Xavier kissed her cheek. "Say hi to her for me."

"Seeya mate" Xavier added, before Romeo left, walking upstairs and over to the counter of the restaurant.

In the upstairs restaurant, Heath was punching numbers into the money till, looking between that and a big leather notebook that he was occasionally writing things into, with Casey standing next to him, folding out and shaping the cardboard boxes with the signature 'Angelo's' label for take-away pizzas.

"Hey Smithy" Heath said when he looked up from the till, noticing the younger man walking up towards them. "Congrats. I heard through the grapevine that you're gonna be a Dad too. Trust me; it's the best thing ever."

"Yeah, thanks. Had a bit of a scare with that today – Indi's in the hospital at the moment."

Casey stopped forming the pizza box that he was folding, looking up at Romeo with concern. "She okay?"

Romeo nodded. "Yeah, it was just a bit of a wake-up call."

"I bet it was. Anyway, what can I get for ya?" Heath asked as Casey resumed folding boxes.

"Can I just grab 2 takeaway lasagnas and garlic bread?"

Heath wrote down the order, "Uh-huh"-ing him, walking the slip of paper into the kitchen, before Romeo too walked off, taking a seat at one of the tables closest to him and waiting for the meal…

Close to half an hour later, Brax had emerged from the kitchen holding two disposable plastic containers filled with food. "Sorry for the wait. One of the cooks had a bit of an incident and it took longer than usual - it's on the house."

"Thanks."

"Pleasure mate" Brax replied, starting to walk off, before Romeo remembered something and stopped him before he'd gone too far.

Romeo had remembered that he'd mentioned something to Indi about trying to ask Brax if there's any jobs going at Angelo's as a second, more stable job in addition to surfing and surf classes. Especially after today with Indi, Romeo figured that the opportunity was perfect and it might help her to relax knowing they'd have another stable income. "By the way Brax, it's a big ask, but no chance that you've got any spots going that I might be able to try my luck at getting, do you?"

He thought about it momentarily, scratching the back of his head. "Oh yeah... You can take Liam's job. I haven't found anyone else since he quit."

"Thanks dude!" Romeo beamed, thrilled that something had finally gone right for a change – and it had gone right so easily at that!

"Don't mention it. I'll just get Heath or Case to drop you off a timetable. First shift on Sunday if that's okay?" Brax confirmed.

Romeo nodded, still smiling.

"Alright – anyway, I gotta get back to it" Brax gestured, throwing a slight wave in his direction before he walked off, prompting Romeo to do the same thing but leave in the opposite direction carrying his takeaway containers.

#

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Indi was beginning to get a bit bored, with her Dad only coming in to check on her every twenty minutes or so, and just for a few seconds. There was only so much deep, thought provoking thinking that you could do and because it was an unexpected trip to the hospital, her only means of personal entertainment was her phone, which was flat because she'd forgot to charge it the night before.

After hearing that his older sister was in hospital and not having any other plans, Dex decided to visit her.

Walking in, Indi's attention was instantly pricked up from the noise of someone walking towards her room.

"DEXXXXX!" She exclaimed with a grin. "I LOVE YOU!"

"Seriously Indi! What meds have they got you on? Where has this affectionate sister been hiding the rest of my life?" Dex questioned sarcastically, but keeping a straight face.

She laughed a little, deciding not to debate his taunt further. "Come. Sit" she stated, sitting on the side of the bed, with her legs dangling off, gesturing to the space next to her that she was implying for her brother to share with her.

"Eww, girl germs" he grimaced jokingly, before obeying Indi and propping himself up next to her. The two sat quietly as Dex wiggled around on the bed, getting comfy, before turning to Indi. "So you okay?"

She didn't reply for a minute, analyzing his question and biting her lip nervously as he looked at her with worry, placing a hand on her shoulder for support.

"Dex?" she whispered.

He nodded in confirmation, with a concerned look.

"I can't believe what I nearly caused, Dex" she confided as her tough exterior that she'd managed to maintain all day finally broke apart as the tears welling her eyes flooded out all of a sudden.

He wrapped his arm around his sister's back, pulling her into a hug as her head collapsed down onto Dex's shoulder with her eyes drowning in tears. "Indi…"

The strength that Indi had been working at upholding by keeping her fears and anger built up in her chest converted into the shaky breathing of crying. "I nearly lost the baby and it was my entire fault."

"It wasn't your fault, and it's okay now. Dad said you're both okay" Dex reassured.

The siblings didn't notice that Romeo had returned to the hospital and was walking to his wife's temporary room still holding the takeaway boxes and smiling, excited about the news of his new job which he also hoped would help Indi stress less knowing they'd be earning more money together. However, seeing the sight of the two hugging each other as he neared the room, Romeo slowed down until he was standing outside of the door listening in through the open door of the room, listening to his wife's tears and listening as she confided in her younger brother.

"As soon as I woke up I thought that I'd hurt the baby or something and I felt absolutely terrible about that, but I was just so angry at Romeo – I didn't even want to see him again at first."

Listening as his wife obliviously spoke the truth, but not to him, Romeo was instantly hurt not only because she'd felt that way and felt such a strong hate towards him, but he was even more hurt and crushed that she hadn't told him that she felt that way. She hadn't even tried to.

Knocking on the door and walking straight into the room, Romeo made it look he'd just walked straight in, walking over to the spare chair in the room, placing the two takeaway boxes there, figuring the meal which he'd intended for himself and Indi could just be eaten by Indi and Dex instead, before he turned and walked straight back out again, all without a word.

"What's up his nose?" Dex asked.

Indi shrugged, sniffling and sitting up again, wondering too about Romeo's strange behaviour. "I don't know…"

I hope everyone liked that chapter, but please let me know what you thought about it. Bit more drama coming up over the next couple of chapters so review and all will be revealed!

Next Chapter:

# Approaching him for advice initially, Romeo confides in Sid.

# Romeo & Indi make a mutual decision about their marriage.